North Korea announced today that it is now an Islamic state. Its official name will be changed from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Islamic People’s Republic of Korea.

According to its official news agency KCNA (North Korean Central News Agency), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made Islam the official state religion after receiving a revelation from Allah.

In a public announcement, the young leader claimed that the Angel Gabriel appeared to him last night and delivered the words of Allah. Gabriel praised Kim for declaring nuclear war against South Korea and especially the United States, since American imperialism is the enemy of all Islamic nations. The angel also added that North Korea will emerge victorious if Kim Jong-un reveals that it had been an Islamic state since the beginning and officially makes Islam the state religion.

Regarding this, Kim Jong-un explained that Communism was in fact a cover-up to better survive the Cold War. The proof is that North Korea still maintained the central values of Islam, such as modest clothing, persecuting Christians, and forbidding women from riding bicycles. Then he made the startling revelation that every previous leaders of North Korea (Kim Jong-un’s grandfather Kim Il-sung, and father Kim Jong-il) were actually Muslim prophets, and so is Kim Jong-un himself.

He concluded the speech with “Muslim brothers of the world, Allah has sent me to lead you. Let us unite in the jihad against America!”

The announcement was met with mixed responses.

Analysts say the announcement is (as usual) aimed at drawing Washington’s attention and potential talks (=food), as well as boosting morale for the North Korean people. What is unique is the degree of extreme desperation for U.S. attention in attempting to exploit Islamophobia. They also added: “they probably thought the prophet part was necessary in maintaining the authority and divinity of their leaders.”

Meanwhile, Islamic leaders were highly offended by Kim Jong-un’s announcement. An imam said, “Islam is a religion of peace, and no God doesn’t agree with nuclear war or antagonizing the United States.” He also added that “Kim Jong-un has no basic understanding of Islam. Mohammad is the LAST PROPHET you twat.” before going on to demonstrate at the nearest North Korean embassy.

Al-Qaeda called the announcement “blasphemous,” Kim Jong-un a “heretic,” and declared jihad against North Korea.

Mr. Park, Jung-geun (25), who was indicted for retweeting the North Korean government’s Twitter account Uriminzokkiri, was found guilty.

On a single judge trial, Judge Shin, Jin-woo of the Suwon District Court Criminal Division no.3 sentenced Mr. Park to 10 months imprisonment as a 2 years suspended sentence.

On the written decision, Judge Shin said that “It can be acknowledged that considering the retweet and the intentions and circumstances of the defendant’s own posts, his actions constitute as agreement and participation with an anti-government organization’s activities.” and that “While Twitter has personal characteristics, it cannot prevent access from the masses and is highly influential, and therefore cannot be limited as personal communications.”

He also explained the reasoning behind the sentence: “A heavier sentence should have been necessary, since the defendant was aware that his actions were ultimately beneficial for North Korean propaganda and public relations, and that he continued to commit the criminal activity even during the investigation; however,it was taken into consideration that this is a first offense and he promised not to commit the same crime again.”

Mr. Park was indicted of retweeting and spreading 96 posts from the North Korean propaganda body Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea’s website, and writing 133 expressions including videos that are beneficial to the enemy, from December 2010 to December 2011.

However, Mr. Park had consistently alleged that he is a member of the South Korean Socialist Party which has an anti-Workers’ Party of Korea (the ruling party of North Korea) agenda, and that he was merely retweeting to tease and satirize the North Korean government.

Aside from retweeting Uriminzokkiri tweets, Mr. Park also wrote tweets mocking the North Korean government, such as “I pay my condolences to Chairman Kim Jong-il and would like to send some uranium and plutonium to the DPRK as a sign of my condolences,” “I want to fondle Kim Jong-il’s boobs,” and “Let’s exterminate Kim Jong-Il, germs, and cancer.”

I guess the moral of this tale is: never make North Korea-related jokes the prosecutor and the judge can’t understand. Or that South Korean authorities are scared shit of North Korean propaganda and/or extremely distrustful of the intelligence of its citizens. Anyway, too pissed off to comment on this, so I’ll just upload a translation for now.

PS. The New York Times (which adds some context, including the National Security Act which Park was found to be violating) and AP News (a much shorter version) has also reported on this.

Got the job finished(well, they want me to make some improvements before publication, but finished), and now some new year’s resolutions for this blog. Will strive to post:

1. The dilemma of Koreans who enjoy feudal-era Japan media-or maybe the other way around; how Japanese entertainment treat (or actively avoid) the Japanese invasion of Korea.

2. Reviews (comics, video games, movies…whatever I’ve seen)

3. Webcomics in South Korea: really, almost the entire comics world has gone to the web in South Korea-and of course it has its shares of problems, such as the lack of stable revenue despite the huge hype.

Almost forgot I had a WordPress blog, haha…actually, I haven’t been doing much blogging neither in Korean or Japanese. Twittter got me, and of course I have my deviantart and pixiv pages to maintain as well…I’d add links if I knew how. Apparently the blogroll thing only shows up for me, and not the viewers?

Probably will be posting more often from now on, although not necessarily on politics. Might do some reviews on comics, animation, film, video games. Wish I had more time to do so-I only got to watch, like, two films in theatres last year. (13 Assassins and Tintin) Still have that ongoing love-hate relationship with Koei, which is now Koei-Tecmo. Which means I’m hugely looking forward to Romance of the Three Kingdoms 12 and Pocket Monster+Nobunaga’s Ambition. Damn you Koei, damn you!

What else, oh yeah, was-and actually still is-infatuated with Sword of the Stranger, the 2007 anime feature film from Bones. I love it so much I am unable to write a fair, objective review about it because I believe it’s the perfect anime film ever, at least for me. I love it as an excellent piece of work, and also as an object of guilty fanfictionous desire. I’ve even made three doujinshi comic books off it-two joke books and one R-rated yaoi piece. (basically has no plot except Rarou/Luolang totally having his way with Nanashi) And it was also my first yaoi work! (also, it’s in Korean and sold out) I did read some yaoi fiction before, but I’ve never been creating yaoi before, nor a sexually explicit work, so personally it was a real creative breakthrough.

Oh right, I was also briefly hired by AK Communications, a South Korean publisher, as editor and marketer. The publisher is primarily known for its Gundam-related publications, so I updated Gundam news everyday to the publisher’s online cafe, organized Gundam-related promotional events like a relay novel on the comments section, quizzes, prizes and stuff. Also recommended, edited and marketed the Korean edition of Ekiben Hitori Tabi, a manga about ekiben (train station-based bento lunches). Apprently it’s doing moderately well. And I was entrusted with creating a brand-new yaoi imprint for the company-I got to plan which books to import, the imprint name, editing, setting up a blog and marketing it, which was challenging but fun. So why did I quit? Well the pay was shitty(I was getting paid like an intern because I was new and inexperienced to the field, although the job I was given to do wasn’t intern-level stuff at all), but actually I got fired, haha. The president of the company acknowledged my skills, but he said I had “attitude problems” and “you have a demon in you.” (I regret to say I was too shocked at the moment to retort, “You mean like daemons? Animals?”) Maybe I do have a problem or he was part of it, considering most workers quit after 3-6 months and the most talented editor I met there was throughly being abused and bullied by the president. (fortunately, he moved onto a better job in a Tokyo-based agency) I admit I do lack social ass-licking skills and asshole tolerence, though. Since then, I was back…in grad school…doing odd T.A. jobs and making powerpoint presentations for my advisor…and still unable to finish that goddamn Master’s thesis either due to prolonged writer’s block or something-always-coming-up, sigh. Currently working on a project for the Bucheon Cartoon & Animation Center; but seeing little progress, with deadline coming up next Wednesday, sigh…and as a distraction I somehow remembered the workdpress blog, so here am I procrastinating.

So yeah, that’s pretty much what’s been going on now. Will be coming back next Thursday…if I finish this project in time. Wish me luck!

It’s been days since Tuesday when six people, including a police officer, were killed by a fire that erupted suddenly atop a five-story building in Yongsan, the center of Seoul. Former residents were protesting against the redevelopment plan for merely 25 hours when they were cornered inside a makeshift watchtower on the roof by combined forces of water cannons, riot police, the special forces and enforcers hired by the coalition company (supported by witness accounts and a recorded police transmission). Police records indicate that they were aware of the fact that the residents kept large quantities of paint thinners in the watchtower to fend of attacks by making molotov cocktails; yet they pushed on what was later criticized as a hasty, rash and highly dangerous operation. From what the prosecutor’s office claims was an ignited molotov cocktail, a fire erupted on the tiny watchtower, spreading quickly due to wet surface and clothing soaked from the water cannons, literally burning the victims to death and injuring many. The police gathered additional criticism when autopsies were performed on the identified bodies without the permission of family members. However, much of the anger is vented towards the already unpopular government with the M.Ps of the ruling Grand National Party divulging in inappropriate and inconsiderate comments such as “They shouldn’t have had paint thinners in the first place” “I hope this will be a chance to end the cycle of violent protesting” and “First and foremost we must concentrate on uncovering the truth and condemning the violent protestors who are responsible (five residents were arrested).” The president has yet to disclose any official apologies or attempt to reprimand the man directly responsible for assigning the operation–Yongsan Police Station chief Kim Seok-ki, also appointed as the next commissioner general of the National Police Agency.

Since the prsidency of Lee Myung-bak, the quality of democracy in South Korea has deteriorated sharply and this tragedy marks the extreme heights–or more precisely the lows–of the consequences when a political philosophy values anything–whether it be law and order or economic development–over the very basic foundation of our existence, human rights. Apallingly enough the government has failed even in the most artificial level to convey any form of believable respect and condolences towards the precious human lives lost in the incident, instead attempting to use the tragedy as a chance to expand and strengthen authority and control at the expense of spitting on graves and adding salt to injuries. The “problem” of Yongsan, the “reponsibilities (“they had it coming”),” the “truth”–the problem is actually very simple: PEOPLE DIED, STUPID!!!

And whatever awaits the fate of the regime after the Lunar New Year holiday ends and people take to the streets on a candlelight vigil scheduled on the 31st–ironically in Chongyechon, the artificial stream constructed by President Lee when he was mayor of Seoul–whatever happens then, they had it coming.